PINA

For Xavier Matsutaro, getting to the Scottish city of Glasgow for the COP26 climate conference will be one of the longest journeys of his life. It will take about four days for the negotiator to travel from Palau, a Pacific Island nation between the Philippines and Hawaii, to Scotland as he joins an international migration of some 25,000 delegates from...

In just 22 days the City of Glasgow will welcome leaders from around the world together with Government officials, civil society, business leaders and young people to launch COP26. COP26 will be the UN’s 26th global climate summit and the UK will assume its presidency. As President of COP26 the British Government is determined to make great strides to help...

Vanuatu Prime Minister Bob Loughman has sent a bid to the Pacific Games Association for their vote of confidence in Vanuatu to host the upcoming 2027 Pacific games. Vanuatu hosted the Pacific Mini Games back in 1993 and in 2017. According to PM Loughman’s statement, such events, more specifically, the 2017 event, has sharpened the nation’s understanding of the lasting legacy...

The Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) held a General Assembly online Saturday, highlighting successes from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and celebrating the organisation's 40th anniversary. ONOC President Robin Mitchell praised Tokyo 2020, calling the Games "magic" and thanked International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission chair and Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates for his work in preparing the Olympics. Mitchell also...

Fiji Airways has announced a return to commercial flying for fully vaccinated international travellers from 01 December 2021. The airline is scheduled a number of daily flights and weekly flights between Fiji and its major tourism destination markets, with the first commercial flight from Australia to Fiji since March 2020 scheduled to depart Sydney on the morning of the 1st...

Australia’s defence minister, Peter Dutton, has chaired a meeting with his counterparts from Chile, Fiji, France, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga with a view to driving ‘more effective regional cooperation with partners’. Dutton dialled into the virtual meeting on Friday, describing the South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM) as an ‘important forum’ given the significant changes the regional...

The French overseas minister Sebastien Lecornu is adamant that New Caledonia's independence referendum should go ahead on 12 December. The minister, who is in quarantine in Noumea after arriving last week, said only an out-of-control pandemic could justify a postponement. Lecornu said he doesn't want the Covid-19 outbreak to be used for political ends, adding that in democracies elections are held...

Fiji’s international border will re-open to its travel partner countries from 11 November, 2021. Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama while announcing the easing of COVID restrictions Sunday said Fiji’s list of travel partners includes Australia, New Zealand, United States of America, United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Qatar, Germany, Spain, France, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, Japan and most...

The Fiji Government aims to make vaccine passports available to Fijians by early December. This has been confirmed by Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum who said it is amongst reliable tactics to verify the vaccination status of every traveling Fijian. Sayed-Khaiyum said they have engaged a German company to assist the government effectively roll out this plan. “Fiji has also announced that they...

By Ian Kemish Things were looking very bad three months ago for both Papua New Guinea and Fiji. The two Pacific countries were each looking very vulnerable to the COVID Delta variant, albeit in different ways. On July 10, PNG recorded its first official Delta case, and the nation’s health professionals were soon warning the combination of very low testing...